Motion Controller, What Motion Controller?
A little over a month ago, the boys over at MTV Multiplayer brought to light the fact that Microsoft may be trying to get into the motion control business with a title being worked on by Rare. While the idea reeks of 'me too' I know plenty of people are chomping at the bit for more info on what Microsoft may be up to in the motion department. Well, the motion control rumor was one of the many questions asked by GamesRadar to Microsoft Game Studio's Corporate Vice President, Shane Kim in a private interview.
The first part of the interview revolves around the upcoming princess of Microsoft's 2008 ball, Gears of War 2, and the current queen in charge, GTA IV. After the talk of the gorillas in the room, Gamesradar asks a bit about the what's missing from the picture: Blue-ray, European PS3 sale figures, Peter Jackson's project, and the lack of an install base in Japan. Along with those come a few questions on the other games in the wings like Too Human, Alan Wake, and and Halo Wars (okay, maybe the Halo Wars one isn't that hard hitting). The real nugget is at the end of the interview in which Gamesradar asks a few questions about the motion sensing controller rumor:
GR: Can you tell us anything about the rumoured motion controller that Microsoft may or may not be working on?SK: Well, the stock answer is that we don't comment on rumours and speculation. But I will say, look, we have a lot of research and development going on all over the place, in Live and in Hardware . . . We're going to continue to look at new ways we can introduce different things - the third parties are doing this as well with the music controllers. So there's opportunities for us there too. We're an R and D company at heart.
GR: Going back to the motion controller rumour, it must be tempting to try and do something similar to capture some of that market - but wouldn't it come across as a bit 'me too'?
SK: Well, you have to be careful about doing the me too thing. But what's interesting is that you have a lot of third parties that are trying to rush to the Wii phenomenon, but if you look at the data, the vast majority of software that has sold on Wii has come from Nintendo. So it's not turned out to be a great third party eco-system.
So it could work if you had something that had a great third party eco-system. Having said that, our unique perspective is going to be online oriented for better or worse.
GR: Which is why we thought it was weird when we heard the motion sensing rumours. Because if Microsoft suddenly came out with a motion sensor it would be last to the party - and SixAxis has hardly taken off that well...
SK: I agree with you. But I've never heard of a motion sensing controller... I don't know what you are talking about...
It's interesting to see how much he talks about how Microsoft might approach the idea, especially about third party inclusion, but then he ends with the normal 'I have no idea what you are talking about' answer... looks like we'll have to wait until E3 or later in the year to see if there is more to this rumor. Hit the link to read the whole interview.
"I've never heard of a motion-sensing controller..." [Gamesradar]
[via: GoNintendo]
PixelPoet
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 13 May 2008
Other stuff like this: gears of war 2, halo, halo wars, motion controls, too human, xbox 360
